Images of Health and Hope

For some, medicine is a career, but for Fred and Milton Ochieng, it is a mission that has allowed them to bring health to their native Kenyan village where medical care was in short supply. Though that lack of medical care may have contributed to their parentsâ€™ premature deaths from AIDs, Milton and Fred turned their grief into a determination that others would receive adequate medical care and live.Fred (l.) and Milton (r.) Ochieng are fulfilling their dream of bringing healthcare to their hometown of Lwala, Kenya. Their inspiration stems from witnessing family members, friends, and neighbors suffer needlessly because there were no medical facilities nearby. â€œWhen I was a teenager, Iâ€™d see cousins or family members who were ill in the middle of the night,â€ recalls Milton. â€œThen, because the nearest hospital was over 10 kilometers away from the village, sick people would have to be either carried on a makeshift stretcher, on a mattress, or pushed in a wheelbarrow to the nearest paved road, four or five miles away.â€ Sometimes people suffered more than they needed to. Other times, the consequences were more dire. â€œWe had people die before they could get to the hospital,â€ Milton says.